Mar 12, 2013

YA/NA Review: 6 Seconds of Life by Tonya Fitzharris

Goodreads summary: Maura has just jumped.Now she has precisely six seconds until she hits the water below her--just six more seconds until she is finally freed from her mundane and aimless existence. Freed of all of the regrets and disappointments that have haunted her throughout her nineteen years.She just needs to be free.But as she falls, the most pivotal points of her life start to replay like a movie in her head: her family falling apart, her first love, her first heartbreak, and her first betrayal. As she remembers these moments that brought her to this point, will she feel a sense of peace? Or will her death be her greatest regret?"6 Seconds of Life" is a new adult novel that not only explores the ups and downs of college life, but the ups and downs of life as we know it.

It would be odd to say that I enjoyed this novel because there is little enjoyment in spending time in the company of a depressed teenager with anxiety disorder. Reading 6 Seconds of Life was like watching a trainwreck. What else can you expect, given that the novel opens with Maura jumping off the Golden Gate bridge?

As she falls, she recounts the events that had the most impact on her life and the decision to end it. I loved how unreliable the narrator was; we know that she has some issues of her own, but there's no telling whether her behavior is the trigger for some events or whether she was just unfortunate enough to be surrounded by people who (seemingly) don't care enough.

The thing that intrigued me most about this novel was the ending. How do you wrap it up? What can possibly happen? Can there be a positive ending, or a satisfactory closure in any way?

The novel needed some editing, there were many places were words were obviously missing or misspelled (too/to/two and such). 6 Seconds of Life was a tough one to go through. It seems like Maura's entire life is a long descent into darkness which makes this book an emotional read.

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